An old theater on Springfield Avenue is now CityPlex12 Newark, after a $7 million renovation completed in 2012 by a joint venture between the retired basketball center and a prominent New Brunswick developer.

It's one of several projects Mr. O'Neal and Boraie Development are working on in Newark and other New Jersey cities to bring commercial and housing development—including market-rate units—into some of the state's more distressed areas.

It is a burgeoning partnership that has begun attracting notice, with Mr. O'Neal lending money and star power to a local developer with extensive political contacts and experience.

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From left, Omar, Sam and Wasseem Boraie in their offices in New Brunswick, N.J. On the wall is a rendering of the One Rector Street development that breaks ground on Friday.
Adrian Fussell for The Wall Street Journal

"Our team is focused right now on Jersey's urban downtowns," Mr. O'Neal said. "We don't want to be all over the place. We want to do one great project at a time."

Their latest project breaks ground on Friday, a $60 million rental complex that will be downtown Newark's first new housing tower in 50 years. Mr. O'Neal will attend the ceremony, along with Newark Mayor Cory Booker, U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez and other officials.

Mr. O'Neal and Boraie Development also are moving forward on a market-rate housing tower, movie theater and retail complex for Atlantic City, and have three other developments in the works for Newark.

Mr. O'Neal is a co-developer and receives an equity stake, which Wasseem Boraie, vice president of Boraie Development, declined to detail. The basketball star—who has a soda brand in partnership with Arizona Beverages and is involved in several business ventures—helps plan the projects but leaves the details up to the Boraies.

"My job is to say, 'Hey, make it beautiful,'" said Mr. O'Neal, a 41-year-old Orlando resident.

Mr. O'Neal said he views his foray into development as giving back to the city of his youth. His partners view them as smart investments. "If you build the right product, the dollars are there," Mr. Boraie said of building in New Jersey's cities.

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A rendering of a project Shaquille O'Neal is involved in with Boraie Development in Atlantic City.
Boraie Development

Real-estate ventures by pro athletes don't always pan out. National Football League stars Michael Vick, Warren Sapp and Mark Brunell, for example, filed for bankruptcy in part because of real-estate deals that went bust.

A sports star's name can lend visibility to a real-estate project, but a player needs to vet the developer he or she partners with, said Jonathan Miller, president of Miller Samuel Inc., a New York City appraisal and consulting firm. "It's not that these people aren't smart. They are going into something completely new," he said. "They are vulnerable."

In the past decade, Boraie has built more than one million square feet of commercial and residential property in New Jersey, according to company figures. Most of the projects are in New Brunswick.

Omar Boraie, the firm's patriarch, was a chemist in Egypt and came to the U.S. in 1970 to get his doctorate. He didn't return to chemistry, and all three of his adult children now work with him in real estate.

The Boraies are generous political donors in New Jersey. Since the 1980s, the family has given about $312,420 to New Jersey politicians and political committees on the state and federal level, campaign records show. Most were in New Brunswick and Newark, where the firm works. The family has contributed around $10,000 to Mr. Booker's bid for Senate, along with $10,600 for his mayoral runs, the records show.

Wasseem Boraie said the campaign contributions weren't to influence officials where they worked, but to ensure "good governance stays in New Jersey." A Booker administration spokesman said the project was negotiated on its merits alone.

The Boraies said they met Mr. O'Neal through his uncle, Mike Parris, a New Jersey resident. They started talking about teaming up in 2005, and set their sights on Newark.

The new 169-unit housing tower will rise near the New Jersey Performing Arts Center. It will include a pool, a gym and a doorman, with rents starting at $1,400 for a studio. The site is the former headquarters of the Ballantine Brewing company, and its 19th-century façade will be preserved. The project is receiving tax breaks from Newark and the state.

The theater's opening last year was seen as a big moment for Newark. It features a 300-seat auditorium and leather seats. Attendance has more than doubled this year, compared with an average of previous years, Mr. Boraie said. Asked about security problems there, he said nothing major had occurred, but: "It's Newark."

"It's a beautiful thing what he's done with this theater," said Kabir Nunnally, a 44-year-old cook who lives five blocks away.

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